In electronic devices having battery-based or scavenged power sources, a charge storage capacitor is typically used as the energy storage element. An example such device is a passive radio-frequency identification (RFID) tag. When two or more sub-circuits of the device are directly connected to that storage element, the discharge time of the entire device is determined by the shortest time constant of any of the sub-circuits. This is the case, regardless of varying power demands of the various sub-circuits. As a result, the power scheme is not optimal, and may limit application of the device.
There is a need, therefore, for techniques for optimizing power consumption in electronic devices having limited power supplies.